As the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) completes 10 years today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday termed it a major turning point in India’s digital payments journey. PM Modi said every Indian must be proud of UPI’s reach. “A decade ago, UPI was rolled out, marking a major turning point in India’s digital payments journey…The sheer scale and reach of UPI are something every Indian must be proud of,” he said in a post. The interface was launched on August 25, 2016, by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) under the regulatory oversight of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and completes 10 years of transforming digital payments in India.
Here are some facts that prove India leads the global digital payment revolution
Global Footprint: UPI accounts for 49 per cent of total global real-time digital payment volume. In other words, one in two real-time payments in the world happen on the UPI platform. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted this in its “Growing Retail Digital Payments: The Value of Interoperability” report, published in June 2025.
International Expansion: UPI is operational in 11 countries and is accepted at major merchant points in countries like the United Arab Emirates. Below is the full list.
| UAE | Operational, accepted at major merchant points; used by Indian diaspora |
| Singapore | Operational, linked with Singapore’s PayNow for cross-border transfers |
| France | Operational, expanding Indian tourist payment acceptance |
| Bhutan | Operational, NPCI-enabled real-time cross-border payments |
| Nepal | Operational, accepted across the nation |
| Sri Lanka | Operational, Indian visitor and diaspora payments |
| Mauritius | Operational, integrated with local payment infrastructure |
| Qatar | Operational. |
- In June 2026, NPCI International Payments Limited partnered with ACLEDA Bank Plc. to launch UPI acceptance in Cambodia
- In June 2026, UPI went Live in Greece for Cross Border Remittances, where eligible customers can transfer money instantly, securely, and seamlessly between Greece-India (through Eurobank).
- On 30th July 2026, Cross Border Remittances between the Maldives Instant Payment System, ‘Favara’, and India’s UPI went live.
Numbers behind UPI revolution: The UPI ecosystem comprises 741 live banks; it processed 2,365.8 crore transactions in July 2026, with total transaction value at Rs 29.87 lakh crore.
BHIM application: UPI was launched on a pilot basis in April 2016 with 21 member banks and rolled out to the public in August 2016. The BHIM application was launched in December 2016 to enable digital payments using UPI.
